Whanganui Bay And Beyond

After Whaririki Beach we were in need of a place to camp and so decided to try the 44km gravel road that heads south and over to the west coast, via Whanganui Bay, a swamp or two, some cliffs of interest, and finally the wild Tasman coast. Except for a ranch or two, this is completely undeveloped territory, not as wild as it gets, but wild enough. It was a bit of an explore, although we were guided, as in various other adventures, by Scott Cook's indispensable NZ Frenzy.

A bit of the enormous Whanganui Bay, at low tide mostly, and
mostly mud flats

Interesting cliffs and karst formations along the drive, a great
gravel road

After the Bay and the swamp, finally a view of the coast and
the sea

The mist from the crashing surf making visibility pretty limited

The road does not go ever on from its junction with the Anatori
River; there is a ford, of sorts, but not for us or for ordinary
vehicles; we stopped just short of the beach and camped there

In the company of two partying Kiwi families

The surf was perhaps a quarter mile away but audible through
the night

Next morning we drove up and around to the beach; a primitive
DOC campground was there

Bush; note the interesting palms

Wild Tasman Sea

More cliffs

A big cave in the limestone

Not exploring this one, however

Big dune hill...but those black things cascading down...are tires!

Another cave

10-11 km from the Anatori is another huge, accessible beach

Driftwood everywhere

We pondered waiting a few hours for the low tide to begin
registering and going for a walk south along the cliffs...but
decided we'd had enough adventure

Plus the visibility remained poor

And so we moved on, back to civilization

And enjoyed seeing Whanganui Bay with water in it

Even a maelstrom with the tidal change

Definitely a do-again kind of place